Becoming a professional photographer has been an elusive goal of mine.
I purchased my first DSLR at BestBuy on Black Friday in 2012. I was excited to purchase Canon’s T3i Rebel DSLR camera for an affordable price. It was a great deal for a lot of gear: camera body, kit lens, zoom lens, an extra battery, and a small camera bag. I think I paid $500 plus tax.
It kickstarted my photography journey.
When Sony released its a7 mirrorless camera, I purchased the Sony a6000 because the price was too good to pass up and mirrorless cameras were all the rage. Shortly after this purchase, I bought a Fisheye lens with a converter to practice this type of photography.
I was excited to have these two cameras in my possession, and I vowed to practice often but only did so haphazardly.
I would pick up my camera with zeal only to quickly store it away when I felt defeated because I wasn’t making great photographs, or because something, most likely work, changed in my life.
I’ve been stuck in this awful loop ever since.
What is it about photography that gets me excited?
Before digital cameras became affordable, I would use my cheap film camera or point and shoot camera to capture all my adventures. I loved capturing moments, and I loved printing my photographs. I have many albums filled with photos of wonderful moments with friends and family, of concerts, and of all my travels.
I’m not a nostalgic individual, but I found comfort in having physical copies of all these amazing moments.
That’s why I love photography. I love that you can capture wonderful moments, people, and places, and I love having physical copies of all of it.
Even in our digitally obsessed world, I still enjoy having a physical copy of a photo. I purchased an Instax camera to print photos on the spot.
So, what does this mean for 2024?
It means that learning to become a photographer, a good photographer, will be my focus for the remainder of the year. That doesn’t mean that the learning stops come December 31. Photography is an ever-evolving medium, and a photographer must be open to learning new photography and editing techniques to remain current.
To accomplish my goal, I broke down the year by quarter, by month, and by week. I’m going to focus on learning the semi-automatic shooting modes on my camera. There’s a misconception among beginners that you must only shoot in Manual mode. While Manual mode affords the most control over your camera, every professional photographer I’ve spoken with and listened to, and every photography book I’ve read agrees on one thing: no professional photographer shoots in Manual mode only.
Based on the advice I’ve received, I’m going to dedicate one month in the second quarter of 2024 to the most popular semi-automatic shooting modes: Program (April), Av – Aperture Priority (May), and Tv – Shutter Priority (June).
The week is broken down into learning through books and tutorials three (3) days a week and intentional practice two (2) days a week. I plan to carry my camera with me every day in case I feel the impulse to shoot before or after work, or during my lunch break.
What I haven’t addressed is what I’m going to shoot, and I haven’t done that because I don’t want to begin this path with preconceived biases towards a genre. I’ve always said that I don’t want to learn portrait photography until I met a professional photographer who told me that I should never shy away from shooting something just because I don’t like or understand it.
Laura BC, a portrait photographer from Basque country in Spain and who recently moved to Bali, encourages her followers to experiment with self-portrait photography as a way to understand the niche and what goes into making a beautiful portrait photograph.
She also advises her followers to shoot everything because that’s how you’ll get to know what you like best.
I know that I love landscape and street photography. Every time I pick up my camera, I walk around NYC or go straight to a park to photograph urban wildlife.
Whatever I decide to focus on in the end, I know I’ll have learned a lot by photographing different niches.
Knowing how to work a camera is half the work of making a great photograph. The other half is knowing how to edit your photographs.
I’ve taken free Photoshop classes on LinkedIn Learning in the past but because I never practiced my photography skills consistently, I never really learned how to use Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom because I never practiced.
Some photographers say that knowing how to use these editing programs is not essential for a photographer to know, but I don’t agree with that. Since the medium’s inception, photographs have been manipulated one way or another.
Editing your photographs is as important as the photograph you make in your camera.
I decided to sign up for Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, and I’ll retake the classes on these two editing programs on LinkedIn Learning.
Side note: I want to remind everyone living in NYC that you can access LinkedIn Learning for free via the New York Public Library. Sign up for a library card today, and you’ll have access to all the courses for free.
I’m excited and nervous about this venture, excited about the process and nervous about the final product. It’s too early to worry about the final product, I know, and the reality is that the final product is going to be awful at first.
It’s going to be a tough road because photography is not easy to learn, but I’m ready to make it work.
Let the photography journey begin.